Benjamin Weaver is awaiting detah in Newgate gaol. Mysteriously convicted for a murder he didn't commit by a judge determined to see him hang, he is suddenly-and aqually mysteriously-offered the means to escape.
A baffled Weaver slinks out into the London night on a mission to clear his name. In doing so, he steps staright into a labyrinthine plot that encompasses the whole of eighteenth-century London. For the conspiracy against him is part of a grimmer and graudier picture: from double-dealings with dockworkers to the xtortion of a priest-and a looming election with the potential to spark a revolution and topple the monarchy.
Handily, Weaver is a private investigator. He's also an ex-pugilist, which is useful when it comes to punching his weight in the 'polite' society of plotters and politicians, power-brokers, crimelords, assassins and spies, at the apex of which sits, rather precariously, a recent import from Hanover: the King.